This review may contain spoilers
really solid drama, the best of the recent wave of feminist revenge dramas!
jiu chong zi/blossom is a genuinely solid show, and i'm so thankful. pacing is generally great, filmmaking is great, both main characters are well written and the plot is considered and cared for. the greatest weaknesses are in its villains and secondary characters, so the entire world of the story is not as rich as it could be, but this show has most of its bases covered.
first of all. their storytelling ability is like, actually at the basic minimum of what i would like from a show, but most idol cdramas cannot meet it. from shooting, pacing, composition, and lighting, it does a very good job of delivering the tension and emotional beats that a story needs. sometimes the editing is Weird tho, like important scenes feel like they're missing or chopped up, or dont get the time they need. however, there are scenes that stay in my mind rent free just because they're well shot and the story is well told. namely the dream sequences, the time travel parts- i was genuinely emotional seeing the scene where dou zhao and song mo find each other and change their fate. sometimes it just hits! the plot and themes are mostly fine. plot is nothing we haven't seen before, typical family drama + revenge, political machinations and scheming eventually culminating in an attempted coup. it was fine because it was at least all set up from the beginning. themes could be articulated more clearly but are a general confucian patriarchal family system bad!! you can change your fate if you work hard enough!! and that's good and fine.
i really like both main characters and i think both are well written. dou zhao is of course, a bit of a superwoman mary sue as it goes in these sorts of feminist revenge dramas. the function is that she has to Keep Winning so the audience can live vicariously through her, and in order to do that, she needs to be superhumanly strong, capable, smart, ambitious, and a step ahead of the enemy at every turn. in something like the double it was extremely grating because she had no substance otherwise. however, dou zhao does have more substance and feels real and believable. her superhuman-ness can be explained by her already being 30 years old by the time she restarts her life, and working and training based off of knowledge she already has of the future. the degree to how hard she worked is also clearly due to not only learning from her mistakes of her past life, but her traumas from that past life. she knows not only from the death of her mother, but from her own lived experience what it's like to suffer by the confucian patriarchal role assigned to her as a woman. it makes it a lot easier to accept how easily she stays ahead of the game. i also really liked her real fear of love and marriage, inability to accept help from others, and how unromantic she is- stemming from her traumas! of course she eventually is able to fully enjoy her relationship with song mo, but these sorts of weaknesses are what makes her feel more believable.
usually in these types of feminist revenge dramas, the female lead with a mission is well written (or just passable) and her male counterpart has nothing to offer other than in being the trophy she wins at the end. not song mo! song mo's storyline, his Great Chinese Complex and struggle with filial piety, his flaws and his growth are all really compelling. usually they give the ml some Cool, Hard, Revenge backstory or mission and it feels super flat because it's obviously not the story they want to tell. however, song mo is obviously cared for, and his genuine struggle between filial piety towards an evil and abusive father, loyalty to an unjust and corrupt system is well done. his eventual choice is wonderful as well, and i wish more cdramas allowed our male leads to choose to leave, give up the system and live for themselves. another point!!!! a lot of times i see this male character type of male lead as having the aesthetic of being brutal, violent, impulsive and cruel however, they can never follow through by actually making them do anything bad or truly uncomfortable on screen. they never actually suffer, just throw their power around with no consequences and are ultimately still a sea of green flags from beginning to end. however, we see song mo be ACTUALLY violent first of all, and be almost foolishly impulsive at times. i like that he literally tries to kill his dad and doesnt give a shit when he dies. dad has absolutely no redeeming qualities LFGG i'm sick to death of nezha style rewrites where actually our parents are sympathetic and loved us all along!!! sometimes you just have an evil dad you have to kill!!!! we also see song mo truly suffer the consequences of his actions, and it's dou zhao, his great strategist and partner, who teaches him patience and how to play a long game, rather than run into situations head first and end up playing into the enemy's hands. in turn he teaches dou zhao that she can be stronger with support, and that it's okay to rely on others. it's really basic, but you would not believe how many romantic cdramas can't write a relationship where the characters actually inspire one another in a positive way, building a strong relationship!!!
ultimately the greatest flaws in this show are the villains and some of their logic. wang yingxue is extremely flat, just an archetypal evil stepmother who's been plotting and scheming since day one. inept father who is mostly blind to stepmother's evildoing is also overdone and uninteresting here. dad does get better and learns from his mistakes, but like honestly, who cares. uncle also has some small bits of writing that are interesting so i think he's fine considering his small role. song han is also.... i dont even know. i actually think he has some potential and there's things about him that are interesting, but i still feel like the character was flubbed and shoehorned, could've been a very compelling character if they wrote him better from beginning to end. also... qing wang and his mom!!!!! what a flop!!!!!! i actually thought the empress was an interesting villain and had sooo much potential. in fact considering why she got jokerfied, i was lowkey rooting for her. but no, the ending message was still...old and evil patriarchal system must still be maintained??/ tho empress would have also maintained a corrupt system? i dont know the writing was unclear for all of this, but i'm glad song mo and dou zhao got to leave it.
other side characters that get the short end of the stick... ming'er :( i was actually so sad that she just died, and it seemed to be her death's only purpose was to punish her mother and wei tingyu. i thought she also had potential to grow... i wish she got to divorce and find her own path!! it was enough that she had the miscarriage and suffered the abuse she did!! she already learned her lesson but they had to just kill her off? ji yong is also just soooooo blah and nothing. i dont even really understand what he's here for other than plot reasons and to help out when he's needed. and oh my god, miao ansu......... what a waste of space. literally nothing going on with her. watching her and song han's scenes were EXCRUCIATING. both of them were just so empty, had nothing to give, acting was mid, literally just went on 2x speed through all their scenes. i really dont know why they wasted so much of our time with their relationship when they could've either just cut it all out or actually wrote them better.
ok that's it. the good things about this drama still make up for all of its shortcomings!! i genuinely highly recommend this show to all if you want a fun revenge drama with a bit of substance!
first of all. their storytelling ability is like, actually at the basic minimum of what i would like from a show, but most idol cdramas cannot meet it. from shooting, pacing, composition, and lighting, it does a very good job of delivering the tension and emotional beats that a story needs. sometimes the editing is Weird tho, like important scenes feel like they're missing or chopped up, or dont get the time they need. however, there are scenes that stay in my mind rent free just because they're well shot and the story is well told. namely the dream sequences, the time travel parts- i was genuinely emotional seeing the scene where dou zhao and song mo find each other and change their fate. sometimes it just hits! the plot and themes are mostly fine. plot is nothing we haven't seen before, typical family drama + revenge, political machinations and scheming eventually culminating in an attempted coup. it was fine because it was at least all set up from the beginning. themes could be articulated more clearly but are a general confucian patriarchal family system bad!! you can change your fate if you work hard enough!! and that's good and fine.
i really like both main characters and i think both are well written. dou zhao is of course, a bit of a superwoman mary sue as it goes in these sorts of feminist revenge dramas. the function is that she has to Keep Winning so the audience can live vicariously through her, and in order to do that, she needs to be superhumanly strong, capable, smart, ambitious, and a step ahead of the enemy at every turn. in something like the double it was extremely grating because she had no substance otherwise. however, dou zhao does have more substance and feels real and believable. her superhuman-ness can be explained by her already being 30 years old by the time she restarts her life, and working and training based off of knowledge she already has of the future. the degree to how hard she worked is also clearly due to not only learning from her mistakes of her past life, but her traumas from that past life. she knows not only from the death of her mother, but from her own lived experience what it's like to suffer by the confucian patriarchal role assigned to her as a woman. it makes it a lot easier to accept how easily she stays ahead of the game. i also really liked her real fear of love and marriage, inability to accept help from others, and how unromantic she is- stemming from her traumas! of course she eventually is able to fully enjoy her relationship with song mo, but these sorts of weaknesses are what makes her feel more believable.
usually in these types of feminist revenge dramas, the female lead with a mission is well written (or just passable) and her male counterpart has nothing to offer other than in being the trophy she wins at the end. not song mo! song mo's storyline, his Great Chinese Complex and struggle with filial piety, his flaws and his growth are all really compelling. usually they give the ml some Cool, Hard, Revenge backstory or mission and it feels super flat because it's obviously not the story they want to tell. however, song mo is obviously cared for, and his genuine struggle between filial piety towards an evil and abusive father, loyalty to an unjust and corrupt system is well done. his eventual choice is wonderful as well, and i wish more cdramas allowed our male leads to choose to leave, give up the system and live for themselves. another point!!!! a lot of times i see this male character type of male lead as having the aesthetic of being brutal, violent, impulsive and cruel however, they can never follow through by actually making them do anything bad or truly uncomfortable on screen. they never actually suffer, just throw their power around with no consequences and are ultimately still a sea of green flags from beginning to end. however, we see song mo be ACTUALLY violent first of all, and be almost foolishly impulsive at times. i like that he literally tries to kill his dad and doesnt give a shit when he dies. dad has absolutely no redeeming qualities LFGG i'm sick to death of nezha style rewrites where actually our parents are sympathetic and loved us all along!!! sometimes you just have an evil dad you have to kill!!!! we also see song mo truly suffer the consequences of his actions, and it's dou zhao, his great strategist and partner, who teaches him patience and how to play a long game, rather than run into situations head first and end up playing into the enemy's hands. in turn he teaches dou zhao that she can be stronger with support, and that it's okay to rely on others. it's really basic, but you would not believe how many romantic cdramas can't write a relationship where the characters actually inspire one another in a positive way, building a strong relationship!!!
ultimately the greatest flaws in this show are the villains and some of their logic. wang yingxue is extremely flat, just an archetypal evil stepmother who's been plotting and scheming since day one. inept father who is mostly blind to stepmother's evildoing is also overdone and uninteresting here. dad does get better and learns from his mistakes, but like honestly, who cares. uncle also has some small bits of writing that are interesting so i think he's fine considering his small role. song han is also.... i dont even know. i actually think he has some potential and there's things about him that are interesting, but i still feel like the character was flubbed and shoehorned, could've been a very compelling character if they wrote him better from beginning to end. also... qing wang and his mom!!!!! what a flop!!!!!! i actually thought the empress was an interesting villain and had sooo much potential. in fact considering why she got jokerfied, i was lowkey rooting for her. but no, the ending message was still...old and evil patriarchal system must still be maintained??/ tho empress would have also maintained a corrupt system? i dont know the writing was unclear for all of this, but i'm glad song mo and dou zhao got to leave it.
other side characters that get the short end of the stick... ming'er :( i was actually so sad that she just died, and it seemed to be her death's only purpose was to punish her mother and wei tingyu. i thought she also had potential to grow... i wish she got to divorce and find her own path!! it was enough that she had the miscarriage and suffered the abuse she did!! she already learned her lesson but they had to just kill her off? ji yong is also just soooooo blah and nothing. i dont even really understand what he's here for other than plot reasons and to help out when he's needed. and oh my god, miao ansu......... what a waste of space. literally nothing going on with her. watching her and song han's scenes were EXCRUCIATING. both of them were just so empty, had nothing to give, acting was mid, literally just went on 2x speed through all their scenes. i really dont know why they wasted so much of our time with their relationship when they could've either just cut it all out or actually wrote them better.
ok that's it. the good things about this drama still make up for all of its shortcomings!! i genuinely highly recommend this show to all if you want a fun revenge drama with a bit of substance!
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